Boven Birth Center Support Services
Breast Feeding Support
Congratulations on the arrival of your new baby! One of the decisions you face as a mother is what method you'll choose in feeding your newborn. When you decide to breast-feed your newborn, support is available through Holland Hospital's Breast-feeding Support Team for families and their babies.
This team consists of registered nurses who are also internationally board certified lactation consultants. These lactation consultant recognize the barriers, challenges and joys mothers face when they choose to breast-feed. Our goal is to offer the support and assistance necessary to make it possible for all breast-feeding mothers to succeed in providing the proper nutrition and nurturing for their newborn.
Services
- pre-natal counseling
- classes on preparing for breast-feeding
- support and education during your hospital stay
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- post-hospital phone follow-up and outpatient services
- personalized plan of care for you and your baby
- return to work support and education
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Benefits
- Breast milk is your baby's perfect food. It contains all the right nutrients in just the right amounts.
- Breast milk is always accessible and ready to give your baby.
- Breast milk actually changes and meets the needs of your growing baby.
- Breast milk enhances proper brain development, and may increase your babies I.Q.
- Breast-fed babies are sick less often and generally develop fewer infections and allergies.
- Breast-fed babies experience less diarrhea and stomach problems because breast milk is more easily digested.
- Breast-feeding is free food for your baby. Formula costs an estimated $1,400 a year.
- Breast milk is easier to provide for your baby. No mixing, measuring or heating.
- Breast-feeding can make you feel closer to your baby.
- Breast-feeding mothers often get back into shape faster, burn more calories and have decreased chance of developing some types of cancers than non-breastfeeding mothers.
Source: The American Academy of Pediatrics
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Parent Advocates
 Download the Boven Birth Center Parent Advocate Brochure
By joining the Boven Birth Center family, you have access to Parent Advocates. The Parent Advocate team at Holland Hospital offers you the information and support you need to take on the most important role in your life — a parent.
The financial support of the Holland Hospital Foundation makes it possible for you and your family to have access to a Parent Advocate during and after your hospital stay — free of charge.
We provide information and services including:
- A handbook with parenting tips, hints and information
- Phone calls to help you adjust to caring for a newborn
- Personalized education and support
- Infant growth and development
- Lifestyle adjustments and post-pregnancy changes
- Baby blues or postpartum depression concerns
- Connections to community resources
It's Easy to Enroll
At your first prenatal visit, you’ll receive your Holland Hospital Preadmission Questionnaire.
When you complete this form, simply check the Parent Support “yes” box.
From an information-packed handbook to supportive phone calls, Boven Birth Center Parent Advocates arm you with the parenting know-how you need to nurture your baby during the first 18 months of life.
For more information please call a Parent Advocate at (616) 394-3703.
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RTS Support Group
If you or someone you know would like more information on the RTS program, or would like to talk with a bereavement counselor, please call us at 616-394-3324. We're here to help.
Bereavement Services
The RTS Bereavement Program recognizes that perinatal loss is a unique, lifelong, parenting and bereavement experience. The mission of RTS Bereavement Services is to actively develop a common standard of excellence, which assures that services are provided to bereaved families through an interdisciplinary and holistic approach.
RTS was developed to:
•assist parents and families who have suffered a loss and aid in grieving
• offer educational programs to interested health care professionals and the community on grief, loss and the RTS program
• promote community awareness about the needs of bereaved parents
RTS program at Holland Hospital
Holland Hospital's Boven Birth Center instituted this program in 1994 from Gundersen Lutheran Medial Center in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.
The program is designed for parents and families who have experienced a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth or newborn death. The RTS program assists families from the moment their baby dies, through the grieving process. Bereavement counselors work in the birth center and in outpatient surgery. They are available to help with any questions or concerns you might have during this difficult time.
Quiet Whispers
A support group for all who have suffered an early pregnancy loss such as ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn death. Quiet Whispers is co-sponsored by the RTS Bereavement Services Program and Hospice of Holland. This support group is held the first Thursday of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Anyone who has suffered a loss is welcome to attend. Sharing with others who have experienced a loss can help in the grieving process.
To register for Quiet Whispers, please call Hospice at 396-2972. Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held at Hospice of Holland, 270 Hoover Boulevard. If you have questions please call Hospice at 396-2972 or Holland Hospital at 394-3324.
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